Tuesday, May 24, 2016

ZAHA HADID - HOPE FOR HER PRESENCE AT EKO ATLANTIC CITY EVAPORATES?

When
I sighted him at the Eko Atlantic City Sales Office Showroom, my heart
skipped a couple of beats. The first fluttering of hope stirred in my soul. Dare
I conceive the idea? Time would certainly tell I thought to myself.

You
see, ‘him’ happened to be Paolo Zilli of Zaha Hadid Architects who was one of
the keynote speakers at the May 2015 edition of the Lagos Architects Forum LAF,
the flagship seminar of the Nigerian Institute of Architects Lagos State
Chapter. The local architectural community was agog to have Zaha Hadid in our
midst, albeit in the form of a representative. On my part, I hoped that perhaps
some of the Zaha Hadid magic design ‘twinkle-dust’ would rub off on me!

During
the course of the seminar, I had enquired about his views on the Chinese government’s
tough stance on the halting of what it had termed ‘weird architecture’. Surely that
classification of their major projects in China was a source of worry for Zaha
Hadid Architects. This was apparently a non- issue as it had been casually
brushed aside as mere propaganda and grandstanding by the Chinese authorities.

Fast
forward to Thursday 31th March, 2016 when the local and international
architectural design community was greeted with the shocking news of the
untimely demise of famous Iraqi born British architect, Zaha Hadid from a
sudden heart attack at the age of 65.

Now,
to the uninitiated, Zaha Hadid is to world of architecture what Steve Jobs is to
the information technology world- a revolutionary. Aside from being one of the
most brilliant contemporary architects with her avant-garde and award winning designs, she was a prolific interior
and product designer lending her famous design skills to a seemingly endless array
of jewellery, furniture, automobiles, household accessories, footwear. Some of
her product designs were showcased as recently as April 2016 at this year’s
Milan Design Week and included a metal and crystal table centrepiece for famous
crystal brand Swarovski for its debut home ware range.

﻿

London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 London Olympics.

With
a colourful career that spanned over three decades, Zaha Hadid ran a London
based architectural design firm of 400 staff. A few of her famous mega-projects
include the London Aquatics Center, Straford for the 2012 London Olympics,
Guangzhou Opera House in Guangzhou, China, Italian National Museum of 21st
Century Arts in Rome simply referred to as the MAXXI. Others include the Galaxy
Soho Complex in China and the 2022 FIFA World Cup Stadium in Qatar. One of my
personal favourites, which in my estimation epitomizes the ingenuity of Zaha’s
romance with curves is a building characterised by soaring yet softly draped
silhouettes, the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan, winner of the
2014 Design of the Year by London’s Design Museum. This building was once naughtily
described as being “pure and sexy as Marilyn Monroe’s blown skirt”!

﻿

Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan

In
recognition of her immense contributions to architecture, laurels and accolades
from both within and outside the profession came pouring in for Zaha. She was a
recipient of the 2004 Pritzker Prize, considered to be architecture’s most
prestigious award, the profession’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize, being the
first female recipient to date to be honoured in her own right. In 2013 Verve
Clicquot honoured her as its Business Woman of the Year. In 2008 and 2010
respectively, Times and Forbes magazines listed her amongst their respective
100 Most Influential People lists. The Queen of England’s seal of approval for
Zaha Hadid’s service to architecture came in 2012 when she was awarded a DBE
(Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire). Her last major award was the
2015 RIBA Royal Gold Medal for architecture, again being the first woman to be
so honoured in the 167 year history of the award.

Interior of Guangzhou Opera House, China

An
extraordinary role model for women in the field of architecture, she has been
described as brave, radical, strong-willed, and remarkable. Like
the proverbial colossus, she bestrode and conquered the male-dominated
architectural space, unapologetically breaking barriers. There is no contest that Dame
Zaha Hadid DBE left deep indelible marks in the sands of time and has truly
earned her bragging rights amongst architecture’s giants.

﻿

2022 FIFA World Cup Stadium, Qatar

So one
can now fully begin to grasp where my excitement stemmed from and why my entire
system went into overdrive when I sighted Paolo Zilli that Saturday in May
during the Eko Atlantic project tour as part of LAF’s programme activities. High
hopes of a Zaha Hadid project at my ‘backyard’ took root that day. Such a
project would have firmly confirmed Eko Atlantic City’s status as the premier location
to live, work and play!But alas, that
desire seems poised to remain wishful thinking with her demise. But who knows?

About Me

I am Odigie Agatha who in her spare time fancies that she is global in her outlook yet indigenous in her pride (whatever that means!!) A chartered architect, she firmly believes that life can be optimized through excellent design. Agatha is hung up on fashion, writing and visual arts. Her work-life mantra is “Huge doors are swung on small hinges”. She sometimes sounds sensible on Twitter @Afroagatha, not very often though!!